Recently I’ve been thinking about the widespread common interest in exploring fractured emotions - which HOAX does - especially within the creative industries. Being published by Jonathan Cape, with their stunning list of graphic memoir titles, affords me the privilege of having for my peers some of the best talent around when it comes to exploring fractured emotions through sequential art. And whilst thinking about this, and about the wildly varying styles of these peers, I’ve gradually felt HOAX the graphic short story shift and expand into HOAX the graphic novel.

If HOAX explores fractured emotions, could it be because schizophrenia, the disorder my bother suffered from, is itself a fractured emotion? Or a mental maelstrom of fractured emotions? Or a convergence of fractured minds? Whatever schizophrenia was or wasn't for my brother, the fact was that he did manifest different personalities during the period of his illness; and during that period he wrote, and we wrote together, many poems that reflected this shifting state of mind.

It seems to make sense, therefore, to build on the scripting that I’ve done for HOAX the graphic short story with further scripts based on later poems: poems that collectively tell the next part of my brother's story. And it also seems to make sense to use a different illustrator for each one in order to reflect the different personalities contained therein.

So HOAX the graphic short story has now led to HOAX the graphic novel. And the scope of collaboration grows.